Memorial Weekend Recap

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend! I spent the last four days:

Going to the movies. My sis invited me, our cousin and a friend to watch Sugar on Friday night. The movie's about what Dominican kids go through to fulfill their dreams of making it into major league baseball. They attend a baseball academy, learn English phrases pertaining to baseball and, if recruited, get sent to the U.S. to play in the minors. There, they not only have to make do with the culture and language barriers, being away from family and wanting to succeed to help those back home, but also with the ever-present competition and pressure to get noticed and picked for the majors. The film focuses on one hopeful nicknamed "Sugar." (By the way, Tooj, his minor league team? The Kansas City Swing.)



It was a touching film with many funny moments (though some of the dialogue could have been better). And, of course, the four of us sat right in the front row laughing and dancing in our seats.

Sugar: 3.5/5 Toasties




Afterwards, we wandered around aimlessly eating fancy cupcakes and enjoying the warm night.

Watching snippets of baseball. The Phillies were in town this weekend to play three Interleague games with the Yankees. (Total news to me that this was happening, by the way.) Anywho, the "mighty" Yanks came into it with a nine-win streak and the Phillies put them right in their place Friday by winning 7-3. The Yankees won Saturday's game 5-4 and Sunday's win went to the Phillies (4-3) after 11 innings. The Phillies are currently in the lead in the NL East and the Yankees are behind Boston in the AL East. Good stuff.

Also, this weekend was this season's first of two segments of Interleague Play. The next segment will be June 12-28th. The American League is currently in the lead with 22 wins while the National League has 20.

Playing with watercolors. I finally took out my paint and started messing around with colors. It took a couple tries until I finally painted something I liked. And so that will be part of five handmade giveaways I'm planning on doing some time very soon. Number 18 was oddly relaxing and after a blah couple of days, painting really calmed me down. Almost therapeutic (and weirdly enough, washing dishes and other mindless/repetitive house chores has the same effect on me). Either way must do so more often because painting is way more fun than scrubbing the tub.

Bar hopping. This weekend I wanted to go to NOHO/East Village to check out the scene there and find some new hang out spots. Though I'd invited several people, it turned out to be just my sis and me, but we had a fun time and gathered a couple more inside jokes (Token)! And it was nice to spend time with her since we rarely get to hang out together. After a couple beers, bar hopping soon turned into bathroom hopping.

Spotting sailors. Those guys were everywhere Saturday night and I did not mind one bit. When it comes to whether uniforms do it for me or not, I recently told someone that clothes do not make the man. I still stand by that, somewhat. The uniform might catch my eye, but that's usually as far as it goes. That said, there's just something about a group of men all dressed in sharp uniforms doing things at the same time. I don't care if it's synchronized walking, it just looks so good!











Following sailors. After spending most of the week turning my head whenever I saw white uniforms, I let the sailors come to me. Whoever decided to have an annual Memorial Day parade start around the corner from mom's house is an absolute genius. So of course I popped on over, camera in tow to applaud and follow those cutie pies from 200th street all the way up to 218th and then back until we reached the park. It was like a group of Pied Pipers beckoning me to follow and I think it's against the law to say no to our armed forces. Take a look:



Touring a navy ship. To end out the weekend, Dad and I went down to the piers for a free tour of the USS Iwo Jima. We were only allowed on two levels or so, but that was more than enough. That thing was massive! Tanks, artillery and equipment were there for show. There were so many nooks and crannies in that ship, I wondered if they've ever pulled away from NYC with a couple stowaways.



















By the way, I'm not really into boats (unlike Intense Guy, who fittingly spent his weekend fixing one up) so I admit I know diddly squat about this ship and didn't read any of the info inside the place. I was satisfied with just looking at the big tanks and watching the little kids climb all over them. And, of course, dad wanted to join in. (He didn't though.)

So that was my weekend. What did you do?

Image: gawker.com